Home Prices Continued Their Slowdown in August
Home prices decelerated in August, as the bite of higher mortgage rates and inflation weighed on the housing sector, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index released Tuesday.
Sunbelt hotspots Miami, Tampa and Charlotte led the pack, with increases of 28.6%, 28% and 21.3%, respectively. After a slowdown in July, mortgage rates resumed their upward march in August, rising from just-below 5% at the start of the month to about 5.6% by the end,” George Ratiu, senior economist at Realtor.com, said ahead of the release.
“For homebuyers, the impact of higher rates was compounded by inflation running at a four-decade high, resulting in less money in their pockets and diminished budgets,” he added. “The sharp pullback in demand was reflected in dropping sales and decelerating home prices.”
“The slowdown in housing market conditions has accelerated this fall which means that home price growth is likely significantly lower than reported by the Case Shiller data.”
Home prices decelerated in August, as the bite of higher mortgage rates and inflation weighed on the housing sector, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index released Tuesday.
Sunbelt hotspots Miami, Tampa and Charlotte led the pack, with increases of 28.6%, 28% and 21.3%, respectively. All 20 cities in the national survey posted lower price increases in August compared to July.“The forceful deceleration in U.S. housing prices that we noted a month ago continued in our report for August 2022,” said Craig J. Lazzara, managing director at S&P DJI.“These data show clearly that the growth rate of housing prices peaked in the spring of 2022 and has been declining ever since,” he added. “On a month-over-month basis, the biggest declines occurred on the west coast, with San Francisco (-4.3%), Seattle (-3.9%), and San Diego (-2.8%) falling the most.”
“After a slowdown in July, mortgage rates resumed their upward march in August, rising from just-below 5% at the start of the month to about 5.6% by the end,” George Ratiu, senior economist at Realtor.com, said ahead of the release.“For homebuyers, the impact of higher rates was compounded by inflation running at a four-decade high, resulting in less money in their pockets and diminished budgets,” he added. “The sharp pullback in demand was reflected in dropping sales and decelerating home prices .”Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS, warned that the slowdown in prices was likely going to get worse as the year goes on.“The August Case-Shiller index reflects single-family home sales that closed in August, meaning many of the sales included in the index were under contract earlier in the summer,” she said. “The slowdown in housing market conditions has accelerated this fall which means that home price growth is likely significantly lower than reported by the Case Shiller data.”
